What are some good ways to compare cost of living between cities?

One way to find out the cost of living is to use the calculator(see below). This is good way to start COL comparison on 2 cities you are looking at.

- http://www.bestplaces.net/col/
- http://www.bankrate.com/calculat...
- http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivi...

Then, please take a look at detail of ACCRA Cost of Living Index (COLI)http://www.houstontx.gov/police/.... You see that expesive housing is the key reason for high cost of living in so-called high cost metro such as San Francisco and New York. SF Housing index 273 Vs Houston's 80.

Therefore, I pay special attentions to housing cost by checking out website such as:

- http://www.rentometer.com/
- http://www.craigslist.org/about/...
- http://www.zillow.com/
- http://trulia.movity.com/rentvsbuy/

Then 2nd largest factors you should look at the tax. If you make $100K+, you have to pay approx. 10% on state tax in high cost states such as California and New York. And, on top of it, because of progressive tax system, you end up paying more on federal income tax if you move to high cost (but high salary state such as CA/NY. 

Lastly, I find below link very useful on studying COL. 

- Kiplinger's ranking of cost of living by 367 metropolitan area. You can also compare with creative class workforce, median household income and income growth. 
http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/b...

- Portfolio's 2010 Quality of Life: Major Markets. You can study the cities by 20 different criterias!
http://www.portfolio.com/interac...

Best Cities for Singles??? Look no further.....

Here is various Best Cities for Singles ranking!

America's Best Cities for Singles Travel + Leisurehttp://www.travelandleisure.com/... 1. New Orleans, 2 Miami, 3. Austin

2009 Forbes Best Cities for Singles http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/27... 1. NYC 2. Boston 3. Chicago

2010: Top 10 Cities for Single Women by SingleMindedWomenhttp://singlemindedwomen.com/mon... 1. Boston 2. DC 3. New York City

America's Best Cities For Young Professionals - Forbeshttp://www.forbes.com/2010/06/17... 1. Houston 2. Washington DC 3. Minneapolis

The Best Cities for Dating - Sperling's http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/s... 1. Austin, TX 2. Colorado Springs, CO 3. San Diego, CA

10 Great Cities For Young Adults for Next 10 years Kiplingerhttp://yhoo.it/e1dCxo 1. Austin 2. Charlotte 3. Chicago

Forbes America's Best Cities For Young Adultshttp://www.forbes.com/2010/12/15... 1. Austin 2. Houston 3. New York City

Party School Ranking http://bit.ly/hhfebs Princeton Review 1. University of Georgia 2. Ohio University 3. Penn States Playboy 1. UT Austin 2. West Virginia University 3. University of Wisconsin at Madison

Why is rain so rare during the summer in the Palo Alto / Stanford area, yet frequent in the winter?

According to Wikipedia's Palo Alto climate page, Santa Cruz Mountains plays as "rain shadow" resulting in an average annual rainfall of only 15.32 inches (389 mm).  http://bit.ly/gGBZfL

As for the "rainy winter", here is the explanations from Wiki's Bay Area climate section. http://bit.ly/hf2QkC

Winter storms are typically wet and mild in temperature during this time of year, being caused by cold fronts sweeping the eastern Pacific and often originating in the Gulf of Alaska. During November into mid March, winter storms are usually several days in length, wet and cool, with severely damaging storms rare.

Lastly, this is great article about microclimates of San Francisco Bay Area. I highly recommend reading this article to understand that science behind microclimates.

Weather as varied as the people / Land and fog build summer microclimates
July 09, 2001|By Harold Gilliam, Special to The Chronicle http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-...

Crystal Springs Gap (Wind Tunnel) 

Farther south on the Peninsula, the San Andreas Fault cuts through the range, producing the Crystal Springs gap, partly occupied by San Francisco's Crystal Springs reservoirs. The breeze through the gap causes Redwood City to be a bit less warm in summer than it would be minus the gap, and the cooling effect sometimes extends as far south as San Jose.

p.s. According to meteorologist Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services—who’s been tracking SF weather patterns for decades, the warmest, sunniest patch of SF theoretically lies in the southern Mission, away from water, hills and wind patterns. “Right around Garfield Square,” he says. Debate over. http://www.7x7.com/arts/7-best-n...

If there would be one single capital of the world, which city should it be and why?

Here are some global city rankings for your thoughts:

Global Power City Index 2009 http://www.mori-m-foundation.or....
1. NY, 2. London, 3. Paris, 4. Tokyo, 5. Singapore, 6. Berlin, 7.Vienna, 8. Amsterdam 9. Zurich 10. Hong Kong

A.T. Kearney Global Cities Index  http://www.atkearney.com/images/...
1. NY, 2. London, 3. Tokyo, 4. Paris, 5. Hong Kong 6. Chicago, 7. LA, 8, Singapore, 9. Sydney, 10. Seoul

PwC Citie of Opportunities http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/citi... 
1. NY, 2. London, 3. Tokyo, 4. Paris, 5. Beijing, 6. Hong Kong, 7. Singapore, 8. Seoul, 9. Shanghai, 10. Chicago

The 150 richest cities (metropolitan area) in the world by GDP in 2005http://www.citymayors.com/statis...
1. Tokyo, 2. NY, 3. LA, 4. Chicago, 5. Paris, 6. London, 7. Osaka, 8. Mexico City, 9. Philadelphia, 10. Washington DC
* Richest cities and urban areas in 2020 http://www.citymayors.com/statis...

World's largest urban areas Population in 2006 http://www.citymayors.com/statis...
1. Tokyo, 2. Mexico City, 3. Mumbai, 4. NY, 5. Sao Paulo, 6. Delhi, 7. Calcutta, 8. Jakarta 9. Buenos Aires, 10. Dhaka
* 2020 Population forecast http://www.citymayors.com/statis...

Global Financial Center Ranking http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/N...
1. NY/London 3. Hong Kong, 4. Singapore, 5. Tokyo, 6. Chicago, 7. Zurich, 8. Shenzhen, 9. Sydney, 10. Shanghai

Mega-Region Ranking by Richard Florida http://creativeclass.typepad.com...Page 31 - 1. Greater Tokyo, 2. Bos-NY-Wash. 3. Chicago-Pittsburgh, 4. Amsterdam-Brussels-Antwarp, 5. Osaka-Nagoya, 6. London-Leed-Chester, 7. Rome-Milan-Turin, 8. Charlotte-Atlanta., 9. Southern California, 10. Frankfurt-Gar

Which is currently the most creative city in the world?

Below are leading ranking/indicator regarding creativity of global and US cities for your reference.

GLOBAL INDEX

Global Power City Index http://www.mori-m-foundation.or.... On page 19, you can see Cultural Interaction ranking as follows; London, NYC, Paris, Berlin, Singapore, Tokyo, Vienna, Beijing, HK & Sydney. 

World Knowledge Competitiveness Index 2008 http://www.cforic.org/downloads.php 
1 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, US 248.3
2 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, US 175.3
3 Hartford, US 175.1
4 Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, US 174.7
5 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, US 160.8
6 Stockholm, Sweden 151.8
7 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, US 151.3
8 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, US 147.1
9 Tokyo, Japan 147.0
10 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, US 146.1

Global Media Cities Index http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/r... (Table 2)
1     New York    100
2     London      71.73     
3 Paris 56.7
4     Tokyo 54.8
5     Washington  52.5
6     Beijing     51.6
7     Hong Kong   48.9
8     Shanghai    48.1
9     Seoul 47.5
10    Taipei      45.8

US INDEX

US Only - Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class among 367 metroshttp://www.kiplinger.com/tools/b... Out of metros with 1.5 million population, the following metros are ranked high; Portland Or, Austin Tx, Houston Tx, Minneapolis MN, Boston, LA, SF

Richard Florida's Creativity Index 
1. San Francisco  1057
2. Austin   1028
3. San Diego      1015
3. Boston   1015
5. Seattle  1008
6. Chapel Hill    996
7. Houston  980
8. Washington     964
9. New York 962
10. Dallas  960
10. Minneapolis   960